Sports

Thursday, November 7, 2002

JV, junior highs end seasons against Greenwood

The seasons end tonight for the Pecos Eagles' junior varsity and junior
high football teams, as the seventh and eighth graders travel to Midland
while the JV stays in Pecos to face the Greenwood Rangers.

The JV is scheduled to host Greenwood at 6 p.m. at Eagle Stadium, while
the seventh grade gold and purple teams will take on the Rangers at 5 and
6:30 p.m. and the purple teams at 6 and 7:30 p.m.

All five teams were beaten for the second time this season by Fort Stockton
a week ago. The JV lost on the Panthers' home field, 32-13 to fall to 6-3
on the season. Jose Garcia had both of the touchdown runs for Pecos, which
gave up touchdowns on a blocked punt and a fumble deep in their own territory.

The junior high teams were all shut out by Fort Stockton at home last
week. The seventh grade teams by 6-0 scores and the eighth grade squads by
20-0 margins. The losses left the eighth grade purple team at 1-7 and the
gold team at 2-5 on the year, while the seventh grade purple and gold squads
are 2-5-1 and 3-3-1 going into their final games of the season.

Eagles close out season against unbeaten Rangers

By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
When the 2002 football season began, this has shaped up as a possible
battle for first place, or at the very least a battle for the playoffs.

Instead, the Pecos Eagles will be closing out their 2002 season on Friday
night against the Midland Greenwood Rangers, who already are assured of both
the playoffs and the District 4-3A title, but who will be looking to finish
with a perfect 10-0 record when they host Pecos at J.M. King Stadium.

Greenwood was the preseason favorite and have more than lived up to expectations,
going unbeaten including wins at home over Sweetwater and Snyder, along with
a win against Andrews at the new Scharbauer Center in Midland. However, after
a convincing opening victory over Alpine, the Eagles have struggled both
on offense and defense over the past eight weeks, with their only win a forfeit
victory over Presidio.

Things did take a bit of a step up last Friday against Fort Stockton,
as the Eagles ran for over 200 yards for the first time since Week 1 of the
season, and led the Panthers 12-7 in the first half. But a questionable call
and some key mistakes by Pecos helped Fort Stockton rally for a 33-24 victory,
putting Pecos at 1-3 in district and 2-7 on the year.

"We're still making mistakes we shouldn't be making at this point of the
season," said Eagles' coach Fred Carter, who thinks based on the teams' records,
"They'll be looking past us. I think that's a mistake, because we are playing
better."

"Pecos seems like it's playing better every week," said the Rangers' longtime
coach Bob Purser. Greenwood got their forfeit win over Presidio this past
Friday and are preparing to face either Merkel or Denver City in the bi-district
round of the Class 3A playoffs. The break allowed the Rangers time to rest
up some injured players, but Purser said, "We've still got a few banged up
including (Jeremy) Audis. He's got a brace on, and that tends to slow you
down."

Audis still ran fast enough to score one short touchdown in Greenwood's
21-7 win over Fort Stockton two weeks ago, and had touchdown runs of 42 and
58 yards in the Rangers' 28-0 win over Monahans to open district play.

He had a 38-yard touchdown run in their 35-0 victory at Kermit and caught
a 28-yard TD pass from quarterback Dawson Wilbur, who like Audis is a first-year
starter in the offensive backfield for Greenwood.

"They played on the varsity last year, but they played mainly on defense,"
said Purser, who said he was surprised at how well they and the other new
starters have done in 2002. "The kids we have were successful as freshman
and JV players. We knew they were good players, but we didn't know how successful
they would be."

Wilbur is Greenwood's other main scoring threat, more this season as a
runner than as a passer, but he was 6-for-10 for 85 yards passing against
Fort Stockton. "We're pretty much an option football team, but if it's not
there we'll throw the ball," Purser said. Kevin Rossler caught four of Wilbur's
six passes against Fort Stockton.

Wilbur ran for two TDs in that game, both in the third period, which is
when the Rangers have scored the bulk of their points in 2002. "I really
don't know why it's happened that way. Since the first game we've either
been a little behind or never ahead by more than a touchdown in any game
except for the Kermit game," Purser said. "In the third quarter it just seems
like we've had a lot of breaks."

Pecos took advantage of a Fort Stockton turnover last week to get the
lead in the first half, and Carter said he was hoping the Eagles could also
come up with some takeaways against Greenwood. "They make some mistakes.
As fast as they are they put the ball on the ground quite a bit (five fumbles
against Fort Stockton), so I hope we can capitalize on that."

While Greenwood's offense is rushing for over 300 yards per game, their
defense has been allowing under 150 yards rushing per night. "We're not very
big at all," said Purser. "We've got pretty good quickness and have got some
team speed, and we have to be aggressive and run to the ball, because we're
not able to stand in there with our size."

He said linebacker Cody Hollums, who also serves as Audis and Wilber's
blocker at fullback, and free safety John Mark Hopper have been among the
top players on defense for the Rangers this season.

The Eagles got a boost last week from sophomore Rashad Terry's 67-yard
touchdown run in the second period. Terry ran for 96 yards on eight carries
while Matthew Levario ran for 97 and two scores, despite losing 25 yards
on a botched fake punt attempt in the third period.

"We're going to keep rotating our backs between Matthew, Rashad, Bino
(Barreno) and Will (Armstrong)," said Carter, who added that the Eagles are
healthy going into their final regular season game.